Meet Sir Jonathan Ive - the Brit who has risen through the ranks to become Apple's chief design officer

New boss: British technology guru Sir Jonathan Ive has been promoted to Apple's chief design officer

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Getting through a day without seeing something designed by Sir Jonathan Ive is almost impossible.

This is the man behind the iWatch, iPhone, iPad, iPod and – going right back to the start – those Apple iMacs coloured like a sweetshop.

His simple, easy to use and – most importantly – sexy, designs have helped turn Apple into the world’s most valuable brand, worth an estimated £455billion.

The company is currently selling around 250 million iPhones, iPads and Mac computers every year.

Now, after 23 years with Apple, the 48-year-old Briton has just bagged the new title of Chief Design Officer.

It seems a odd move, considering he was already in charge of all things design and has nearly 5,000 patents to his name.

But insiders say it marks a change in role that will let him spend more time away from Apple’s California HQ and perhaps let his twin sons go to school in Britain.

New boss: Sir Jonathan Ive is the Brit who has been promoted to the technology giant's chief designer officer (Image: PA)

Known at Apple as Jony, he lives an £11million, five-storey mansion in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights and is said to be worth £85million.

His passion for high-end cars means he has driven Jaguars, a £150,000 Aston Martin DB7 and his current ride, a Bentley Mulsanne.

Not bad for a Essex-born lad who went to Newcastle Poly.

Born in Chingford, Ive’s family moved to Stafford when he was 13 and he went to a comprehensive school there.

He played for the county at rugby, and retains the look of a front-row forward with his broad frame and shaved hair.

His mother taught theology then became a therapist and his father Michael is a retired design and technology teacher.

“My father was a very good craftsman,” Ive has said. “He made furniture, he made silverware – he had an incredible gift.”

He met his future wife Heather Pegg at school and they married in 1987. They have twin boys aged 11.

Ive won a place at the prestigious Central St Martins art school in London to study car design, but left shortly afterwards - “the classes were full of students making vroom! vroom! noises as they drew,” he recalled.

He went to Newcastle Polytechnic, now Northumbria University, to study industrial design instead.

MacBook Air: Sir Jonathan was responsible for giving us this (Image: Getty)